Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Less than a month ago the internationally regarded scientific journal Nature published a report on the state of the world’s rivers. The international scientific consortium who produced the report examined the cumulative effect of such things as pollution, dam building, chemicals from agricultural run-off, the conversion of wetlands and the introduction of exotic species on the health of the world’s rivers. They found that, right around the world, rivers are in a crisis state. They found that nearly 80 per cent of the world’s human population live in areas where river waters are highly threatened, posing a major threat to human water security and resulting in aquatic environments where thousands of species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction—a very sobering story indeed.

Here in Australia we have been debating the future of the Murray-Darling Basin where again the science points to a river system in decline, needing action to restore water in order to avoid killing the goose that lays the golden egg. After I spoke on the Murray-Darling issue in parliament last week I received quite a lot of supportive emails, including one from a farm forester in Western Australia with qualifications in forestry and forest products named Tim Mitchell, who said:

It is patently obvious to an outsider from Western Australia that a type of ‘Wild Rivers’ solution is required here, with a mandatory un-grazed and multi species buffer zone of 500-1000 metres along both the Murray and the Darling.

Mr Mitchell’s suggestion drove home to me the value of keeping the wild rivers that we still have. Given that and given the fact that the Leader of the Opposition has suggested getting rid of Queensland’s wild rivers legislation, I want to highlight to the House, and support, the call by Australia Zoo that we uphold the wild rivers declaration of Cape York Peninsula’s Wenlock River.

Terri Irwin has written to me, and no doubt to other MPs, about this issue. She points out that the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve was set aside as a living, breathing memorial to her late husband, Steve Irwin. This reserve contains the Coolibah Springs Complex, which plays an important hydrological role by providing perennial flow into the Wenlock River and is home to a rainforest type found nowhere else in the world. These springs are threatened with a bauxite mining proposal from Cape Alumina Ltd. Terri Irwin says:

… I understand that mining is an important industry. However, we have learned over the last 50 years of bauxite mining that it is critical to set aside the most environmentally sensitive areas such as the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve and not consider mining them.

The Director of Australia Zoo, Wes Mannion, has written:

The Wenlock River has the richest freshwater fish diversity of any Australian river, and supports a critical population of critically endangered Spear-tooth Sharks, endangered freshwater Saw Fish and the vulnerable Estuarine Crocodile.

He says:

… Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve stretches across the … Cape York landscape in a mosaic of tropical savannah woodlands, rainforests, rivers, creeks and wetlands like a big … patchwork quilt.

It represents outstanding biodiversity which should not be strip mined for bauxite. I agree with Wes and Terri. I was a guest of Australia Zoo at their bush camp on the Wenlock River, in the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, for several days in September. It is a magnificent place, where the real Australia can still be found. I also saw extensive areas where bauxite was being mined. We should not kid ourselves that it is possible to strip mine areas for bauxite and then rehabilitate them to restore their wilderness values. It cannot be done within the lifetime of anyone now alive.

As well as visiting Cape York, I have also had the pleasure of meeting a number of Cape York traditional owners. A number of them came to Canberra at the end of September. Their views are very important, not least because the opposition leader has been asserting that wild rivers legislation and declarations are not in the best interests of local Indigenous people and are not supported by local Indigenous people, regularly citing Noel Pearson on this point. Well, the traditional owners have made it clear. They have said:

Abbott’s intention to overturn Wild Rivers does not have our support and he should drop his crusade immediately.

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We call on Tony Abbott to acknowledge that Noel Pearson does not speak for all Indigenous Australians —he is not our elected leader. … we … can speak for ourselves …

I support the calls by my Labor colleagues Senator Furner and Graham Perrett for the ongoing protection of this unique part of our ancient, beautiful and fragile land.